Results 201-220 of 26,565 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for the local authority. ...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned....

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Energy Conservation (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department funds a number of grant schemes administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to support homeowners improve the energy efficiency of their buildings, and to promote the adoption of renewable energy systems. The part-funded schemes include:the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme which is available for homeowners wishing to avail of the complete home energy...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department operates a devolved procurement function in which each business section is responsible for its own procurement. My Department also has a Procurement Officer, at Assistant Principal level, who provides advice and guidance to the business sections. The information sought in the Question in relation to each agency or public body under the auspices of my Department is an...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department records details of contracts over €5,000 on a digital register which is centrally operated and monitored. The information sought in the Question in relation to each agency or public body under the auspices of my Department is an operational matter for each of the State bodies concerned and, as such, it is not information held by my Department. It is suggested that the...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Fuel Poverty (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government has made a number of important commitments in respect of addressing the continued high cost of energy. The Programme for Government 2025 acknowledges the increased energy cost pressures on households and businesses and commits to bringing forward measures to help contain energy costs. Earlier this year, the Government approved an extension of the 9% VAT rate currently applied...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Fuel Poverty (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Ireland’s Climate Action Plans recognise the need for the electricity sector to become more adaptable and flexible, in response to the ever-increasing volume of distributed renewable energy sources on the grid. To ensure reliability in such a distributed energy system, as well as to minimise the network upgrades (and costs for all) needed to accommodate peaks in demand, it will be...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Departmental Reports (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is committed to the open publication of all government information, which is central to trust, transparency and public engagement. My Department ensures that all relevant documents, reports, strategies and resources are made available to the public on our Departmental website on gov.ie, and has not engaged in “unpublishing” any documents, notwithstanding temporary...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Waste Management (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The study to explore the feasibility, potential benefits and risks associated with transitioning our waste collection system from its current competitive licensing system to a franchise tendering system commenced in early 2025. The aim of this comprehensive year-long feasibility study is to identify how we can best support the achievement of EU recycling targets. It is timely at this stage...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Renewable Energy Generation (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government approved the high-level design for the Micro-Generation Support Scheme (MSS) in December 2021, as a means of supporting 380MW of new micro-generation capacity by 2030 under the Climate Action Plan. As part of the approved MSS Final Scheme Design, the maximum grant levels for domestic applicants were set out for the period from 2022 to 2028. In 2022 and 2023, the maximum...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Thank you, Deputy, for your question. The performance of all public transport operators is monitored by the National Transport Authority (NTA), and the contractual arrangements put in place allow for financial penalties where performance does not meet the required standard, including services operated by Go-Ahead. Regarding your specific question about engagement with the NTA prior to...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Services (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including the provision of bus stops/shelters nationally. There is a commitment under the Programme for Government to ensure that public transport...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Safety (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Irish Government’s road safety strategy 2021 to 2030 ‘Our Journey Towards Vision Zero’, as published by the Road Safety Authority, includes the primary aim of reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads in half by 2030 and to achieve ‘Vision Zero’, zero deaths or serious injuries, by 2050. To help achieve this aim the strategy...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services provided under public service obligation (PSO) contracts....

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: In accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993, each local authority has statutory responsibility for the improvement and maintenance of their regional and local roads. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources and are supplemented by State Road grants. Of these grants, the vast majority (approximately 90%) are targeted at the maintenance and...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department’s Procurement Function is part of the Governance Division, which also has responsibility for Agency Governances Oversight and oversight of the Governance Framework and Risk Management in the Department, led at Principal Officer level. The Department’s Procurement Team provide central guidance to Divisions in conjunction with the Office of Government Procurement...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department has a contract register in place and is in the process of moving (late Quarter 3 2025) to the Finance Shared Services (FSS) system of the National Shared Services Office (NSSO). The Finance Shared Services (FSS) system includes an integrated contract management system. The contract management systems or procurement tracking platforms in place in the agencies and/or public...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned....

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Safety (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from Councils' own resources supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for the local authority. My...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Departmental Reports (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Gov.ie website underwent a major system upgrade in April 2025. In a mass movement of web content, it is inevitable that some broken links will occur and that these will take time to identify and resolve. An audit conducted post-migration revealed a small number of broken links on the Department of Transport website. This issue is being actively worked on and it is expected that it will...